Armavia Airlines jetliner missing in the Black Sea

An Armenian Airlines A320 Airbus is missing near the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The jet was carrying 100 passengers, and was flying to Sochi from the Armenian capital of Yerevan. At aprroximately 11:30pm GMT the flight dissapeared from radar.

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- An Armenian Airlines jetliner with 100 people aboard disappeared from radar early Wednesday near the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russian authorities say.

Controllers lost contact with the Airbus A320 shortly after 3:30 a.m. Wednesday (11:30 p.m. Tuesday GMT), Victor Beltsov, a spokesman for the Russian Emergency Services Ministry, said.

www.cnn.com...

More as it becomes available.

[edit on 5/2/2006 by Zaphod58]

There are reports of a debris of a debris field found, but no story on the net yet. I'll post a link as soon as it's up.

The BBC is reporting: Armenian jet crashes near Sochi





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100 passengers including 8 crew, and 5 children. They've found a debris field including life jackets, but no bodies. There's bad weather in the area hampering search efforts.

Debris has been seen in the sea, about 6km (four miles) from the coast, says Russia's Emergencies Ministry.

Bad weather conditions are making the search for survivors difficult.

Life jackets have been found in the accident area, although no people have been found, said deputy head of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, Viktor Beltsov.

news.bbc.co.uk...

An Armenian Airlines A320 Airbus is presumed lost in the Black Sea area.

Is this the same plane that has had nosewheel troubles? One recently in Canada, and one somewhere else earlier?

There have been some rudder problems with Airbus, but no nosegear problems that I'm aware of. There had one lose both engines on a long range flight because of a maintenance error. They failed to put a bracket back on a couple of fuel lines, and they rubbed then ruptured, causing a major fuel leak.

Never any bodies anymore with plane crashes? Seems strange to me and resembles 911 etc. Wonder how long until they decide on a cause. Wonder if it is terrorism or some other operation.

It just crashed like 2 1/2 hours ago. In the ocean. They usually don't find bodies right away when they go into the ocean. It depends on if it broke up in flight, or if it crashed in one piece. If it was intact when it hit then they'll find most of the bodies in with the bigger wreckage. If it broke up they'll find bodies soon. And they're trying to search in bad weather. It's hard enough to see things like bodies at night in CLEAR weather, let alone in bad weather.

Edit to add- At least one body has been found now, along with luggage and body parts from other passengers.

[edit on 5/2/2006 by Zaphod58]

It's now being reported that as many as 114 people were on board.

Wreckage from the plane was found not far from the shoreline, Beltsov said. The Interfax news agency reported that rescue teams at the site pulled the body of a woman from the sea, and cited a coast guard official, Vladislav Kozlitin, as saying body parts were also found.

Beltsov said preliminary information indicated there were 114 people aboard. Earlier, Russian news agencies reported the plane was carrying 92 passengers, including five children, and eight crew.

Rescuers found parts of the plane some four miles from the shore, along with empty lifejackets — an indication that passengers had no time to put them on, ITAR-Tass quoted an unidentified local emergency official as saying.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Is this the same plane that has had nosewheel troubles?

Are you talking about the Jetblue plane where the nose gear was turned 90 degrees? If so yes that was also an A320. From memory I don't recall any recent incidents in Canada with the A320. There was an Air Transat A330, maybe you're thinking about that one.

They've found bodies, strangely, at least three that weren't officially onboard.

www.aero-news.net...

Terrorism has been all-but-ruled-out as a possible factor... although, in a curious development, the bodies of three victims recovered have been identified as Armenian citizens NOT listed on the airliner's passenger manifest.

Three victims recovered, not on the passenger manifest...

Perhaps employees on a free flight? Or hijackers? Maybe even a rendition of sorts? Interesting development...

There have been three Air Transat Airbus problems. The one that ran out of fuel, which was an A340, and two that had chunks of rudder rip off the tail.


The three not on the manifest were probably crew deadheading with the flight.

Zaphod, it's definitely possible that they were crew, as you say.

That's the most probable explanation, I would think.

But, they could be anything at this point.